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Video: Teacher praised for calming kids during shootout

>>>a cell phone video popped up on ubtube this weekend that reminds us how devastating the
drug war
in
mexico
has become and how small the victims can be. a
class room
full of kindergarten kids is singing a cute little song from barney the dinosaur all while a gun battle rages right outside their window.

>> reporter: the teacher's name is marta rivera, and this morning, mexican officials praised her courage under fire. on friday, organized crime gangs fought a battle that killed five men outside the school where she teaches. inside, she calmly ordered the children to lie flat. nothing is happening, sweethearts, just put your little faces on the floor. the teacher said she shot the video because she's on the school safety committee and felt the need to record this. as they cowher from the rainfall of bullets outside, she has the children sing a barney the dinosaur song about how it's raining chocolate. if the rain drops were made of chocolate, i would love to be here.

>>the actions of the teacher in the situation were extraordinary. the primary objective is to keep the children safe and calm.

>> reporter: this map from elnorty pin points the violence this year. an american teacher living in monterrey who wants to remain anonymous spoke to nbc news.

>>it's happening everywhere. there's no way to escape the reality of what is happening here.

>> reporter: children in
mexico
execute shootout drills like the duck and roll children went through in the
cold war
. this picture drawn by a child called the
mexico
where live in is similar to drawings from chim fr from kosovo and other war zones. that teacher and the children in her class know that terror all too well.
george lewis
, nbc news,
los angeles
.

MONTERREY, Mexico — A kindergarten teacher in northern Mexico was honored Monday for her courage after a video showed her calmly leading children through a duck-and-cover drill as gunfire rattled outside their school.

A certificate presented by the governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon said teacher Martha Rivera Alanis showed "outstanding civic courage" in her steady performance during the Friday gunfight in the northern industrial hub of Monterrey.

Rivera Alanis proudly held up the framed certificate outside the office of Gov. Rodrigo Medina de la Cruz and said she wasn't concerned with fame — only the safety of her 5- and 6-year-old students.

"Of course, I was afraid, but I tell you, my kids get me through it," she said following the private ceremony.

Rivera Alanis herself used her cell phone to tape the video, in which she is heard coaxing the 15 children to lie flat on the floor.

Monterrey has been plagued by a wave of drug-related violence, in which gangs linked to drug cartels have staged gunfights, blocked streets and opened fire on civilians.

In the video, the teacher tries to take the kids' minds off the gunfire, leading them in a song popularized by the children's show "Barney & Friends." The song talks about the sky raining candy — not the bullets that were piercing the air that day.

"If the rain drops were chocolate, I would love to be there, opening my mouth to taste them," the class sang as they hugged the floor at the Alfonso Reyes school.

"My only thought was to take their minds off that noise," she told reporters Monday. "So I thought of that song."

Rivera Alanis, 33, said she posted the video to her Twitter account, and someone who found it there posted it to the website YouTube.

A mother of two children, Rivera Alanis said her young students had set an example for the rest of the city.

"I'm going to carry on, of course it is possible," she said. "If my 5- and 6-year-olds can do it, it is up to the rest of us to carry on."

Rivera Alanis' school and those in several Mexican cities that have been hit by drug violence have held emergency drills in the past to instruct teachers and students what to do in case of gunfire. Such violence has killed more than 35,000 people across Mexico over the past four years.

"We do drills constantly, because the area where we are is a high-risk zone," she said, adding that the kids "behaved in the way we had practiced."

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.